Karachi: The University of Karachi and Oxfam in Pakistan on Thursday signed the memorandum of understanding to promote gender justice and women empowerment in society.
The Gender Specialist, OiP, Sartaj Abbasi, briefed the participants of the meeting that Oxfam together with Australian Aid has initiated an “Ending Violence Against Women and Girls” through ‘Edutainment Project’ to actively engage with college and university students of Karachi through art and edutainment to bring about an impactful, lasting and meaningful change in young people’s attitudes and behavior towards violence against women and girls and issues related to them.
He mentioned that the project includes a range of activities including animated movies on violence against women and girls, murals, social media campaigns, radio messages, and the development of complaint response and referral mechanism on harassment in 20 universities in the country.
He expressed that this MoU aimed to encourage and engage students in conducting researches on violence against women and girls. Sartaj Abbasi shared that OiP would also carry joint research and publications for the protection against harassment of women with the KU.
“OiP is working for the eradication of poverty and to promulgate the socio-economic empowerment of vulnerable groups. We aim to uplift the marginalized groups inclusive of women, youth, and children by creating sustainable livelihoods, social, political, and economic empowerment and enhancing their resilience to crises, shocks, and stresses.”
Meanwhile, the KU Vice Chancellor Professor Dr Khalid Mahmood Iraqi directed the Director ORIC Professor Dr Alyia Rehman to initiate a phase-wise training session for the heads of the departments and centers in collaboration with the OiP.
He suggested that in the first phase training session for at least 20 departmental heads under the supervision of the KU Central Harassment Committee should be initiated in upcoming weeks and later on such sessions could be arranged for chairmen and chairperson of other departments. The KU VC Professor Dr Khalid Iraqi observed that such sessions would help the departments to deal with the harassment cases, if happens any, on the grassroots level.
The MoU signing ceremony was held at the KU VC Secretariat and Sartaj Abbasi on behalf of the Country Director OiP Syed Shahnawaz and KU VC Professor Dr Khalid Iraqi inked the documents. The KU Registrar Professor Dr Abdul Waheed and the Director ORIC Professor Dr Alyia Rehman and its members were also present on this occasion.